Leo Nestor and chant-choral combination
  • Blaise
    Posts: 439
    Does anybody know any composer who writes in similar fashion? We are singing his "A Child is Born" for Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. For those who have not heard this work, it starts with a soprano chant melody, then after the fermata, the choir sings SATB, the same tune (to different lyrics, of course).

    My question is: are than any other composers out there which actually use chant as a basis for their or part of their works? Keep in mind: I'm not a music major, so you'll kindly excuse me if I'm ignorant of these matters.
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    Many composers have done this. Maurice Duruflé's choral music - because he published so little - is nearly all based on chant.
    Thanked by 1tomboysuze
  • Blaise
    Posts: 439
    We have sung Durufle's "Ubi Carita" many times-a good work.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Paul

    Here is my latest vesion of Jesu Dulcis in SATB

    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=4848&page=1#Item_9
  • lautzef
    Posts: 69
    Most Renaissance and late medieval composers used the "alternatim" form for hymns, often for the Magnificat, and sometimes for psalms. If you are looking through a volume of polyphony and see a hymn with an unfamiliar text, it is most likely the second verse of a familiar hymn. You are expected to sing the first verse in chant, then sing this setting in polyphony, the third verse chant, and so on. Lassus, Verdelot, Costanzo Festa, and many others did this. We use these settings all the time. I either xerox the whole hymn in chant and then the singers can look over to the chant sheet when they are ready for a chant verse, or if I have enough time I cut and paste so everything is right there on the sheet. One caveat: make sure they know what notes the beginning and ending of the chant verses are on, because the transitions are the trickiest parts.

    A great example of this is Philippe Verdelot's polyphonic "Ibant Magi" for Epiphany. This text is verse 2, so you go find "Hostes Herodes impie" (that's the first verse) and alternate the chant verses with the polyphonic ones - Verdelot has set the even-numbered verses in polyphony and the whole thing makes a lovely motet for an Epiphany mass. Most Renaissance Magnificats are set this way - only a few are polyphonic the whole way through - and I can think of some Spanish Vespers psalms that are also "alternatim." We use a lot of this music for the Latin mass at Immaculate Conception, and we used to use the Magnificats when we had polyphony at Vespers on a regular basis.

    Fred Lautzenheiser
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 397
    My schola sings alternatim settings all the time. One way to introduce this to congregations is to use alternatim with chants that have familiar hymn-tune versions. For instance, the congregation at the first-Sunday EF for which we provide the music has been very receptive to Verbum supernum/O salutaris sung v1 chant, v2 hymn tune (Lambillote), v3 chant, v4 hymn, v5-6 hymn (5-6 are the O salutaris text familiar from Exposition). If we are only filling a short time at Communion, we will just chant the O salutaris verse and then sing the hymn tune starting at Uni trinoque.

    The Ciro Grassi 3-part Magnificat Tone VIII is also a favorite (see Secunda Anthologia Vocalis here at MusicaSacra.com under the Chant Book tab). It is an example of the Magnificat settings Fred describes. We usually sing it SAB but have sung it SSA.
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